


This is Where It Ends

by Sarahastro



Series: Tales from Starfleet Academy [2]
Category: Star Trek - Various Authors, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, Nova Squadron, Starfleet Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-28
Updated: 2013-10-28
Packaged: 2017-12-30 18:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarahastro/pseuds/Sarahastro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sito Jaxa talks to her friend Nev Reoh during the investigation into Joshua Albert's death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This is Where It Ends

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place during the events of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The First Duty." Sito Jaxa appears in "The First Duty" and also features prominently in the episode "Lower Decks." Nev Reoh comes from the Star Trek novel _The Best and the Brightest_ by Susan Wright. He is a Bajoran cadet who grew up in a resettlement camp on the planet Shunt, and he was briefly a Vedek before leaving Shunt and joining Starfleet.
> 
> The title comes from the song "This is Where It Ends" by Barenaked Ladies.

_June 2368_

 

"Mind if I sit?"

Sito Jaxa nodded and tried to smile at Nev Reoh as he sat down on the bench beside her.

"How are you?" he asked.

She paused, not sure what to say, then sighed. "Not good."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

For a moment, Jaxa was tempted to tell Reoh everything. He often talked about how he had been a complete failure as a Vedek, but he was so gentle and kind, she could understand why people came to him for guidance. She longed to unburden herself to him, but instead she said, "I can't." He didn't press her, just nodded and sat beside her quietly. They sat in silence for a moment, then Jaxa said, "I really love it here."

"The Academy?" Reoh asked.

"Well yes, but I was talking about this garden. This is my favorite place on campus."

"You showed it to me on my first day at the Academy," he said. "You introduced me to Boothby."

She smiled at the memory. "I met him here too. I had just arrived at the Academy. I had never seen anything like it. I was so overwhelmed, I just stood in the middle of the path looking around. Boothby told me to get out of the way before someone ran into me." She looked around and sighed. "I'd never seen anything to beautiful. It reminded me of the stories my mother and father used to tell me about Bajor."

"I felt the same way," he said. "I grew up on a desert planet. We could barely find enough water to stay alive. I'd never seen an ocean until I came to San Francisco."

They sat in silence for a moment, then Jaxa said, "I wanted to thank you for coming to the hearing. It means a lot to me."

"Of course," he said, then added "I didn't want you to be alone."

She swallowed hard and tried not to think about how she had felt seeing the other cadets' families in the courtroom. She had had to fight back tears when she saw Wesley's mother, her face full of concern for her son. There was no one at the hearing for her except for Reoh.

She wondered if Captain Maxwell had heard about all of this. She had been rescued by the Pegasus after a raid on the Cardassians had gone wrong when she was only fifteen, and Captain Maxwell had convinced her to leave the Resistance and join Starfleet. He had even arranged for her to go to school on Earth for a few years to prepare. They used to exchange messages every month, but a year ago they had abruptly stopped. Eventually she heard about his attack on the Cardassians, and that he was now in prison. She had followed his trial in the news, but he never got in touch. She wondered if he was following hers.

For the first time in a long time, she though about her parents. She wondered what they would think about all of this, what they would have said. Her parents would have told her to pray to the Prophets for guidance, to ask them to show her the right path, but she had stopped believing in the Prophets long ago. It was easy to believe in the Prophets when you lived a life of peace on a beautiful jewel of a planet. But she had grown up in a refugee camp on a planet that could barely support life under the constant threat of Cardassian reprisal. She had learned to do whatever it took to stay alive.

"Are you nervous?" Reoh asked.

With anyone else she would have tried to deny it. "Yes," she said. "Will you be there tomorrow?"

He nodded and patted her arm a little awkwardly. "Everything will be fine," he said. "It'll be over tomorrow."

She tried to smile. "Right," she said. Tomorrow Admiral Brand would decide their fate.


End file.
